Internation Initiatives
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Pakistan Hub

Pakistan faces persistent economic, political and development challenges. While progress has been made, the economy remains weak with a spiralling debt crisis, large proportions of the population are vulnerable to negative shocks, increasingly linked to climate change. Women, youth and people with disabilities are often excluded from basic services and marginalised. The closing of civic spaces and the political polarisation further exacerbate these challenges.

The Pakistan Hub is centred on a long-term partnership between IDS and the highly regarded Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). The Hub focuses on issues such as governance, women’s rights, environmental justice, through an engaging programme of research and events including a regular webinar series.

Recent work
Featured news
Democracy on trial: Pakistan elections 2024
The Pakistan general elections come at a pivotal time, with the country facing one of its worst-ever economic crises, record-high inflation, tensions with three out of four of its neighbours (Iran, Afghanistan and India) and another ousted ex-prime minister behind…
07 February 2024
events
This Stained Dawn: feminist documentary and director Q&A
An International Women’s Day film screening of 'This Stained Dawn', a documentary film about the build up to the 2020 Aurat March (women’s march) in Pakistan. The screening will be followed by a question and answer session with the globally…
19 February 2024
Opinion
Increasing women voters’ turnout in Pakistan
Evidence from Pakistan demonstrates that, in contexts where men act as gatekeepers, efforts to improve political outcomes for women need to engage men. Women vote at much lower rates than men in many developing countries. In Pakistan, this gap is…
Ali Cheema & 3 others
07 February 2024
events
Pathways to Development Conference
The second Pathways to Development Conference will bring together empirical work in economics, sociology, politics and political economy, to find solutions to the grand challenges constraining sustainable growth in Pakistan and the region. Economic growth and poverty reduction can, and…
25 July 2023
Opinion
Child marriage in Pakistan: Conversations with activists
International Women's Day is an important day for raising awareness of the challenges for achieving gender equality and to recognise the accomplishments of gender activists around the world. To unpack key debates around child marriage law and its implementation in…
Mahnaz Shujrah
08 March 2023
events
Pathways to Development: Equitable and sustainable growth in Pakistan
Pathways to Development is a multidisciplinary conference that brings together empirical and historical research by economists, political scientists, sociologists, legal and constitutional scholars, and law and policy reform experts, within and outside Pakistan, to document and describe the scale of challenges…
13 December 2022
Partners
Projects
projects
Navigating Civic Space in a Time of Covid-19
The Navigating Civic Space in a Time of Covid project examined patterns of changing civic space and civic action in Mozambique, Nigeria and Pakistan during the first nine months of the Covid-19 pandemic. How did the pandemic affect already shrinking…
projects
Unpacking Donor Action (A4EA)
How is social and political action for empowerment and accountability enabled and supported by donors working in specific fragile, conflict- and violence-affected settings? [embed]https://youtu.be/6Vs0qaz9OPo[/embed] Many donor organisations aim in some way to empower people living in contexts of fragility, conflict…
projects
Demanding Power: Struggles Over Energy Access in Fragile Settings (A4EA)
How and under what conditions do struggles over energy access in fragile and conflict affected settings empower marginalised groups to hold public authorities to account – both over energy and more broadly? [caption id="attachment_52771" align="alignnone" width="644"] 'People board a chapa…
People
John Gaventa
Research Fellow and Director, Action for Empowerment and Accountability (A4EA) programme